FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2014

The FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships took place in Dubai 15th (opening ceremony) to 21st June 2014. Rapid event 16th-18th June 15 rounds, time control 15m+10spm. Blitz 19th-20th June 21 rounds 3m+2spm. 122 entries,

Magnus Carlsen secured an amazing double of World Rapid and Blitz titles in Dubai to go with his classical title. Carlsen was pressed hard on the final day when Ian Nepomniachtchi started with 6/6 to take clear first with four rounds to go. Carlsen however responded well and his turn around from a lost position against Rauf Mamedov in round 19. Then Carlsen beat Yudin in round 20 whilst Aronian beat Nepomniachtchi. Carlsen only needed to avoid loss for the title in the final round but after safe play he beat Anton Korobov for the title which was a good job as Nepomniachtchi beat Morozevich.
This was not an easy or certain win for Carlsen in either the Rapid or Blitz event and to win both is a very great achievement. As is holding all three world titles at the same time. "17/21 is certainly deserving of first place." Magnus Carlsen, "an incredible score" - Anand.

All available games and standings.

Day 1: Rapid Day 1

Day 1 saw Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana, and Sergey Karjakin start with 4.5/5. Half a point behind were Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Magnus Carlsen, Laurent Fressinet, Le Quang Liem and Sergey Movsesian are on 4pts Baadur Jobava, Viswanathan Anand and Alexander Grischuk are in a group on 3.5pts, Hikamura Nakamura scored 3 and Levon Aronian 2.5pts. Last year Mamedyarov's winning score was 11.5/15, as Nepomniachtchi said in interview consistency is really important in the event.

Day 2: Rapid Day 2

Day 2: Magnus Carlsen hit the lead alone on 8/10 after
two days of the FIDE World Rapid Championship.
A complex draw vs Karjakin and an escape vs
Fressinet were followed by three wins in a row
vs Kryvoruchko, Movsesian and Caruana. Carlsen
faces Levon Aronian in Round 11 on Wednesday.
Aronian scored 4.5/5 on day 2 including wins vs
Karjakin and Nakamura. Half a point further
back on 7/10 Nepomniachtchi, Caruana, Tomashevsky, Grischuk, Yu Yangyi, Anand and Svidler.

Day 2: Rapid Day 3

Magnus Carlsen wins the World Rapid Title

"Clearly the strongest swiss tournament of all time." Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen won the World Rapid Championship with 11/15 half a point clear
of Fabiano Caruana and Viswanathan Anand. He admitted
"The last day was just extremely tough"... "Levon [Aronian] played a very good
interesting game and I had to use all my powers just to stay alive."

Carlsen then lost to Anand from a position where he stood better (after going wrong in the opening)
"There's basically no way I can lose that position except for blundering a piece in one move."
In Astana 2012 Carlsen led the World Rapid before collapsing completely and those negative
thoughts started to come to him. He also took some time out whilst waiting for a round
to finish to go bowling.

"I take it very seriously but you cannot constantly be focused otherwise you lose your mind." Carlsen

Carlsen struck back immediately to beat Yu Yangyi. Then against Grischuk he went wrong
in the opening and then raeched a position where he realised his position was
"in complete ruins". Having run his clock down trying to find an answer he played
on and somehow survived and then when Grischuk started to go wrong Carlsen realised it was
"suddely anybody's game. I felt I need to play for a win." This was the win that earned Carlsen the title. His mental toughness in recovering from his loss to Anand rather than collapsing as many have done before was impressive.

Teimour Radjabov who lost just a single game in the first round didn't put much
in Carlsen's way for the draw he needed in the final round as his tie-break was clearly better than those who could catch him. In second was Fabiano Caruana who had
been near the top all the way through and the only undefeated player was Viswanathan
Anand who finished in third.

Day 4: Blitz Day 1

Magnus Carlsen led by half a point going into the final down.
Carlsen will now be looking to complete the double here with the 21 round blitz over
the next two days, if he does I believe it will be one of his major achievements in chess.

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